Chinny-Chin-Chin

By Paul Lukas, on February 18th, 2014

It’s not often that a Uni Watch reader designs something that makes it onto an NFL gridiron, but that’s the case with the chinstraps you see above, which were designed by longtime reader and industrial designer Michael Princip. As some of you may recall, he’s the guy behind the Bulwark football helmet, which I wrote about for ESPN back in 2011.

The strap is called the ArmorFlex, and is produced by a company called Wingo Sports Labs. I’ll let Michael take it from there:

The ArmorFlex consists of a thin, corrugated piece of flexible plastic sewn onto what is essentially a traditional vinyl/leather chinstrap. So, you get the flexibility and comfort, yet with added protection. I designed two different styles of it.

The ArmorFlex is one of a few different products I’ve designed for Wingo. They primarily deal in shoulder pad lining systems, most notably the Under Shield vest. Quite a few of the Seahawks wear the Under Shield (including center Max Unger), so they have a good relationship with the company. The team’s equipment manager, Erik Kennedy, had a few of the ArmorFlex chinstraps to offer his players, and it looks like safety Kam Chancellor was one who really took a liking to it. He was wearing it all season long, although I didn’t realize that until after the Super Bowl, when someone from Wingo told me about it.

I knew two other NFL teams had players who wore this chinstrap: the Texans and the Dolphins.

The best part of this, although Mike didn’t mention it, is that he’s a huge Seahawks fan (he even has a Seahawks uniform and equipment blog), so I’m sure he’s super-stoked to know that Chancellor was wearing his strap.

Big congrats to Mike on seeing one of his designs make it to the field. I think we’ll be hearing more from him in that regard in the not-too-distant future.

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Click to enlarge

Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

Daggone, check this out. You know I’m a huge fan of vintage NFL posters, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of it than the Dave Boss beauty shown above. And here’s the best part: That poster is just one-quarter of a four-poster lot that’s currently available on eBay. You want more? Here are four Niners posters, five Rams posters, and two Broncos posters. All of these are from a single seller, and he has a ton of stuff — more than I’ve ever seen from one seller.

• We’ve all seen the gumball helmets, but I’ve never seen them with this type of presentation. The auction listing says 1970s but it’s most definitely 1960s due to the Redskins spear helmet, the black Saints, and the green Eagles. And with this helmet kit, you can join the NFL Super Pro Club.

• Never had the corresponding helmet and bat set for MLB. This one looks to be in pretty good shape, but it’s from the 1970s (not the ’60s, as the seller is claiming), given the Rangers presence.

• Reader Susan Freeman sent in some examples of tape dispense helmets. You got yer Niners and yer Ray-Duhz.

Hockey News: Dartmouth hockey player Charlie Mosey gives teammates Grant Opperman grief for inking out some of the letters in his name, thus proclaiming his prowess when playing with a man advantage (from Tris Wykes). … “My children play hockey and this weekend we were helping with the jwhl challenge cup (www.jwhl.org),” writes Ken. Here is the little Caesars u17 road uniform, which is “creamcicle (Tampa bay) Orange.” … The Philadelphia Wings (NLL) will wear Flyers-themed jerseys for an upcoming game (from Nicholas LaRosa). … There are two links from this page: an illustration of the ‘Neon Night’ jersey the Lake Erie Monsters will wear this Friday, and a picture of the Joe Haden bobblehead they’ll be giving away on Saturday (thanks to Tom Pachuta).

70 comments to Chinny-Chin-Chin

I am an avid Penn State fan and I also noticed the players wearing the jerseys with the white collars and sleeve cuffs. Some players were wearing the blue jerseys like that with no names on the back. Others were wearing the all white jerseys with names on the back. I was wondering if they were going back, too. But my initial guess is that they just grabbed some jerseys for the occasion.

We’ve all seen the gumball helmets, but I’ve never seen them with this type of presentation. The auction listing says 1970s but it’s most definitely 1960s due to the Redskins spear helmet, the black Saints, and the green Eagles.

Well, that, and the four-team Capital/Century/Coastal/Central Divisions… though the helmets are definitely not placed in the correct divisions.

Interesting to see how the Rams decal has yellowed with age so it looks more like the 1950-1963, 1973-1999 logo than the 1964-1972 white horned logo.

Hodges14|
February 18, 2014 at 8:57 am |

Uni related news happened to me this past weekend: I saw a pic of Zack Wheeler who was modeling a 7 line shirt in PSL. However, it wasn’t the shirt I noticed, it was the San Jose Giants cap that he had on. Now I know Wheeler had been drafted by the Giants, but I was curious to know why he kept the hat. So I tweeted him about the hat. Although he did reply, it was a snarky “And I’m supposed to tell you this…why?” Jesus! You’d think I asked him about the details of him going to a strip club. Anyway, you can find that tweet using my twitter handle @alexgiobbi.

It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Wheeler may have taken “care to explain?” as more hostile than you meant it. And he’s certainly not obligated to answer your (or anybody else’s) question, or even respond.

Trainerdave|
February 18, 2014 at 9:02 am |

I have always liked the color combo for the Little Cesar’s hockey program. Similar combo used by the old San Diego Gulls, another favorite of mine. Although I am not sure how it would look on a major sports team, works well in the minors.

Side note, back in the day and maybe still, they had a locker room painted with those colors in Joe Louis Arena. It was a smaller locker room off the visitors bench entrance.

Max|
February 18, 2014 at 9:06 am |

Not only are the Syracuse shorts nothing like those from 2003, the jerseys aren’t either.

They aren’t supposed to. According to the linked article the Jersey is reminiscent of a design first worn in 1984, while it states that the shorts feature “trim details” reminiscent of those worn by the 2003 team, which is apparently erroneous.

Meh, looks like someone threw it together using clip art in MS Word, but kind of what I figured when I pulled this image up last week.

For something that’s going to be worn all season, you’d think they’d wait a couple of days and create something of quality. You’d think…

Steve D|
February 18, 2014 at 1:16 pm |

The patch design is fine with me…think the patch is a bit small though.

M.Princip|
February 18, 2014 at 9:48 am |

Thanks, Paul. A bonus to have the chinstrap writeup next to Brinke’s David Boss pics.

Just a little tidbit about the man behind Wingo Sports, he’s the first to manufacture & distribute those mini football helmets. Hence, in the collector world, blank shells are referred to as Wingo shells/helmets.

MEANS|
February 18, 2014 at 10:23 am |

Noticed the NFL’s “Endzone” font is being used in the Tennessee Vols locker picture for the players last name. “Owenby”

I love those Oklahoma State baseball jerseys but the horrible type setting in the bat just ruins it for me.

Chris|
February 18, 2014 at 10:29 am |

New Bucs stuff coming. Nikification? Hope not. Not a huge fan of the team, but the unis are distinctive. http://www.myfoxtamp...

Adam H|
February 18, 2014 at 10:30 am |

Wow, beat me by 1 minute haha

Adam H|
February 18, 2014 at 10:30 am |

Apparently Warren Sapp is going around saying Tampa Bay is unveiling a new logo and helmet tonight: http://profootballta...

1) If you’re doing it so that once a year you can trot out the Creamsicles, I’m sorry, as much as I can adore the Creamsicles now, that’s not a good enough reason by itself to change;
2) As someone who’s been with this team since 0-26, this is precisely the type of b.s. move they’d do. They’re a completely clueless organization. They’ve never grasped it. The brief period in which they DID seem to have an idea of what they were doing, they let Gruden chase off anybody who had any sense of a clue.

I’ll be shocked if the helmet shell isn’t at least mostly white so the Bucs can do their throwback game, which the NFL put the kibosh on last year for the Cardinals game. That way, all the Bucs would have to do is change the facemask if it’s not a shade of orange. I wonder what the new logo will look like.

The Little Caesar’s AAA Hockey uniforms have been that unique light orange/powder blue color since at least the 80s. I’ve always loved the unique appearance. If you’re playing drop-hockey around SE Michigan and see someone that color pants/gloves you just know what team they belong to. They recently had a BFSB accent stripe around the the yoke and striping, but it appears it’s gone now.
They’ve had some distinguished alumni over the years too (Mike Modano,John Vanbiesbrouck, the Hatcher bros)

If anything, the Jets bag bugs me more, because while the players shown definitely points to the 1969 team, they weren’t part of the NFLPA until 1970. The NFLPA and AFLPA didn’t even meet together until January 1970.

superfly|
February 18, 2014 at 12:31 pm |

Jerid Morris saw this photo from the 3-pt. contest and asks, “Anybody else think this might be a dry run for in-game jersey ads?”

Is this really the only mention of this over the last few days, or did I miss something? I thought this place would be going ballistic over this.

I missed your mention or I would have said something, just surprised no one else did.

JenInChicago|
February 18, 2014 at 12:31 pm |

I must have been sleepy when I submitted the Tukka Rask photo over the weekend. I forgot to add that I’m sure that goalies do wear chains, etc. but I wonder if there’s another piece of equipment that’s usually worn, but isn’t being worn by Tukka now.

Jeff (not The Jeff)|
February 18, 2014 at 12:38 pm |

Really curious about the Bucs new helmet and logo designs. Kind of slipped in under the radar. Wonder if there will be any leaks Wednesday or Thursday leading up to the unveiling.

Also, those US Hockey 1960’s were beautiful. Nice touch.

Daniel|
February 18, 2014 at 1:00 pm |

Pretty sure Martin Brodeur wears a chain while he plays

Randy|
February 18, 2014 at 1:12 pm |

Just curious – Why was Craig Brown needed against Switzerland? Did something happen to one of the other curlers? An injury?

I was super happy to see the 1960’s retro jerseys on the ice again. The jerseys that are linked to in the USA Hockey store aren’t exactly what they’re wearing in Sochi though. The jerseys in the link have a patch from the IIHF 2011 World Junior Championships (that also has a Buffalo Sabres logo?).

I’m fairly certain 2006 was the first year of the patch, if not earlier. Eight years is fairly long dry run. We’ve just been seeing it a lot less frequently, because recently guys have been wearing shooting shirts over their jerseys, like Kyrie Irving last year and Paul Pierce a few years before.

dustin|
February 19, 2014 at 4:26 pm |

Gator baseball team’s been rocking some sweet stirrups and high cuffs this season. Any chance the Florida-Maryland series makes the list of best-looking NCAA baseball games of the weekend?http://www.gatorvisi...
From the mid-week game against Central Florida:http://www.gatorzone...

John Hartwell|
February 19, 2014 at 9:45 pm |

Paul — thanks for the Rushmore Commanders & Holiday League shout out. I appreciate Kevin’s hat tip! Folks can see all of the Holiday League work at http://www.holidayle...

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